Fairytale
by Apricot-Angel
Summary: Elena was never a sucker for a conventional fairytale ending. Maybe that's why the man of her nightmares was so irresistible to her. ElenaxDamon


**Haha my bad guys, I know a lot of you had expressed interest in my ElenaxDamon oneshot and even requested I'd do another, so I thought why the hell not give it another go? Hope it's as good as the other but...Whatever. Thanks for reading! **

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Peace and serenity was once so accustomed to Elena Gilbert until a certain goblin known as fate stole it. Ever since the turn of the school year, Elena's life had dramatically become exposed to a world of violence, death and fantasy. It was both repugnant and seductive, pulling her in by her desire to protect her loved ones. She knew deep in her heart that whether or not she refused to partake in the world of vampires, witches and werewolves, her family and friends still were at risk. At least if she were aware of such impending adversity, she could contribute to preventing such tragedy.

Despite her decision to remain involved in the secret and dangerous society of supernatural beings, there were times when Elena simply would wish to revert back to her old ways. Back into a time where her biggest problems revolved simply around herself; be it school, family, or friendship and boy troubles. She believed that if she occasionally focused on only the mundane and unimportant issues revolving around teenage life, she would not feel she'd have wasted her youth grieving and panicking over the perpetual doom associated with the supernatural world.

Elena had decided to escape it all for the weekend, concentrating solely on her high school work. She'd become so caught up in Mystic Falls' never-ending dangers that she'd forgotten that she was still a high school girl. With a Major English project due on Monday.

Elena had grabbed her notebook and decided to retreat to her favourite place near the woods by the streaming river. She'd sat herself down, moved her long dark locks away from her face, opened up her book and waited for inspiration to flood her mind like a gushing waterfall.

_Nothing._

She hadn't realised how her current lifestyle had deemed it impossible to dream and imagine fantasies- mainly because this year, she'd begun to realise many things that were supposed to be make believe had turned out to be fact. She was living in a fantasy world, meaning she didn't have to dream to experience things that would've otherwise been believed to be fiction.

She sat there, chewing thoughtfully on her pen for almost an hour, trying to come up with anything feasible to write an epic narrative about. She was beginning to lose hope that her efforts to return to a normal teenager's life wouldn't be in the least successful.

"Well, well. A brooding teenage girl hidden in the confines of a forest. Sounds like something you'd find in a regurgitated modern fantasy novel, haha."

That annoying, narcissistic drone of a voice sent shivers down Elena's spine. Not good ones, though. Angry ones.

"Go away Damon," muttered Elena, firmly snapping her notebook shut.

"Gee, you're not the first person to tell me that. I wonder why..." Damon pondered aloud, sitting beside Elena in spite of the deepening grimace on her face. "What are you doing anyway?"

"Well if you _must _know, I'm writing a story for my English major. It's due soon and I'm drained of all inspiration,"

"Urgh,_ relax_," responded Damon, "You always had a knack for writing, as pointless and boring as it may be."

"I guess, but the only writing I do regularly is diary ent...Wait, how do you know I write?"

"_Well_," Damon began, "As far as I'm aware, Stefan has a diary and I figured you must be just as dark and brooding as he if you were dating him. I mean it's only logical."

Elena raised a skeptical eyebrow, wondering if Damon seriously believed that she'd trust what he'd just regurgitated. Then again, she didn't really care, nor did she want to continue the conversation further so she simply heaved a sigh.

"Well, if you don't mind, I need some time alone to think about what to write for this stupid topic..."

"Oh, really now? And what _is_ the topic?" Damon asked, feigning interest.

"_Alternative_. We're meant to put our own spin on a typical literary convention,"

"Well that sounds _so_ difficult," Damon rolled his eyes.

Elena smirked. "Just because you haven't been to school in more than 145 years doesn't make you superior to the rest of us,"

"Oh, I agree! School has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I surpass _every_ mortal and supernatural being in absolutely everything anyway!" announced Damon, flashing a snide smirk. "But c'mon Elena, _Alternative_? You could just write about _me_ and that'd earn you an A plus!"

Elena stared, dumbfounded. "Are you kidding me? I knew you were vain but to the point where you advise people to write about you for their homework? That's pretty pathetic."

She chuckled melodically at such a thought. Damon wasn't impressed.

"I'm not being vain, I was being serious. These days, everyone's obsessed with the bad guy turning into a good guy. Stefan's your typical modern day villain-hero. I, on the other hand, am not."

Elena paused, deeply considering what Damon argued. In some crazy, bizarre turn of events, it would seem Damon had a good point. For a change.

"But whatever. Not like it matters to me whether you get an A or fail. Schooling matters bore the immortality out of me anyway."

Before Elena could even blink, the obnoxious vampire had vanished, leaving her bemused by what had just occurred. She reopened her notebook and something amazing happened.

It all began to flow back into her mind, just as it used to. The marvelous flow of inspiration.

With an excited and optimistic state of mind, Elena quickly began to copy down what her mind dictated to her.

* * *

It was a pleasantly warm, quiet afternoon at the Salvatore residence. And according to Damon, those days were the worst. With Mystic Falls at that point being relatively free of any impending danger, and the brothers facing no new adversaries, Damon found no pleasure in his day. And having to stifle his quintessential bloodlust and need for a thrill, he could only drown his boredom with hard liquor.

As Damon swallowed another mouthful of whisky, he watched carefully as Stefan entered the room with an amused smirk on his face.

"If you've got something to say you may as well spit it out," said Damon with disinterest.

Stefan crossed his arms, his smile subdued yet growing wider. "Have you heard from Elena recently?"

"Um, not to my knowledge," replied Damon, whirling the golden brown liquid in his glass with boredom.

Stefan chuckled silently, "She wrote a story for her English Major. It apparently was so good the teachers pushed for it to be published in the local paper,"

Damon yawned. "That's great for her but..._Why _are you telling me this?" The elder vampire scrutinised the amusement prevalent in his brother's eyes with suspicion. "Stefan, what do you know?"

Stefan moved over towards a nearby desk, shuffling through until he retrieved a few papers, before highlighting a few lines. Looking over the papers once again, he gathered them up and sat on the sofa besides Damon.

"You haven't read Elena's story, have you?" asked Stefan.

"Do I _look _like the person to read?" chastised Damon.

Stefan chuckled, his brilliant white teeth gleaming as he handed his brother the papers. "Just read the highlighted lines,"

Damon raised an eyebrow, albeit confused, he placed his glass of alcohol down and began to read.

_Just like in a fairytale boasting fantasy and romanticism, her eye was caught by the unconventional, misunderstood type of hero. However, the reality of the circumstance would suddenly rear its ugly head. _

_He was no hero._

_She was desperate to remain adamant that there was good. She hoped that just as in a fairytale, her hero was unassuming, unremarkable, but with heart. That the exterior was not a true representation of the interior. That there was truly good inside. But it would appear that such a notion was simply a paradigm of a nonsensical fairytale. In this situation it would be those that judged that were correct about his true disposition._

_It was as if searching for the tiniest speck of dust in the midst of the perpetual darkness. Searching for any trace of goodness in the darkest of hearts proved to be impossible. He was a travesty, an abomination. It was safe to conclude that as much as she desired to see the best in people, he was by no means, good. There was no glimmer of light in the blackest of souls. The other man, conversely, was the epitome of the misunderstood hero. His goodness glimmered like a white light amongst the smoke of black, the poison that the other one was._

_And yet as despicable as he may be, no matter how much he would be deemed as evil to the very core and dangerous, she was still drawn to his irresistible countenance. She wasn't necessarily a masochist, nor was she unintelligent, but she couldn't deny the flaws that made him so unremarkably wonderful for her. His presence was an indescribable feeling that swelled within like a raging fire. She could feel his warmth, his light budding within the pits of darkness. And as it did, her heart grew for him. Because heroism and villainy signified perfection in the realms of good and evil. And he was by no means a perfect hero or villain. He was simply flawed, just as she._

The papers stood no chance against the crushing force of Damon's balled fist. He bit his bottom lip with distaste, blinking against a glazed vacant expression. He stood up silently, stuffing the papers lazily into his jacket and left the house swiftly. Stefan sat back on the sofa, silently hoping Elena would be prepared for the perils of Damon Salvatore.

* * *

The student of Mystic Falls High collectively cheered with relief as the aging school bell rung exhaustively at the end of the school day. The students walked out in a disorderly fashion; among them were Elena Gilbert and her two best friends whom were all glad to see the day over.

"Wow, this story's pretty good, Elena," Caroline marvelled with surprise as she read on, "I can see why it was published in the newspaper. But who's it about?"

Elena looked to Bonnie with a knowing expression as they shared a mutual amused smile.

"Oh, no-one. Just something I came up with,"

The trio laughed pleasantly as they exited the school, far behind the throng of other students. Elena gazed out into the distance and caught the eye of the unpleased expression of Damon Salvatore. He stared at her severely, his arms crossed tightly as he slowly moved towards her.

"Um, I'll meet you guys later..." Elena murmured slowly, her eyes never leaving the approaching vampire. The girls nodded knowingly, swiftly leaving Elena alone to deal with the 'pleasantries' of the elder Salvatore brother.

"Um, Damon, h-"

"You mind telling me what this is all about?" snapped Damon, throwing the crushed papers he had in his possession by her feet. Elena stared, taken aback.

"I thought you-"

"Yeah, I know I told you that you could easily get a good grade by writing your paper about me, but I didn't mean that you could so_ blatantly_ mock me in front of the entire town!" he growled, his smoky blue eyes glinting. "You really thought you could write and publish something like this and not have me find out? Clearly you forget how nasty I can get, Elena."

"Um, excuse _you_ Damon Salvatore," Elena chastised, "But I thought you knew _exactly_ what you signed up for when I asked you to review it first!"

"...Wait, wh-"

"I gave you a copy to read two weeks ago, asking you if you were okay with what I'd written. Clearly you lied about reading it when you said you were fine with all of it. So don't you take this out on me, because it's not _my_ fault."

Damon paused, bowing his head in humiliation as he took a deep breath.

"I'm...sorry."

Elena shrugged her brows, unimpressed with the vampire's pathetic display of remorse.

"Look, Elena...I'm sorry. Guess the public humiliation of being bagged out in a high school project bothered me. Clearly I don't enjoy a jab at my pride,"

"Hm, well you'll be happy to know that not everyone is clever enough to realise who the story was based on, so you're reputation hasn't been that badly damaged," said Elena.

Damon smiled, suddenly remembering the story. "So...Did you really mean what you wrote? More specifically, the last paragraph?"

The sheepish smile that crept upon Elena's pink lips was difficult for her to suppress. "Heh. Writers have an amazing way with words you know,"

Her coy expression was irresistibly attractive to Damon. He couldn't help but smile along with her.

Writers may have a way with words but that didn't necessarily make them untrue, right?

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**Hahaha sorry if this sounds kind of sucky and weird, I just really wanted to publish something today so none of you think that I really did mysteriously disappeared off the face of the Earth. Despite not doing the ElenaxDamon pair to justice, feedback would still be very much appreciated!**


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